Florida Man Sentenced to 350 Years for Child Pornography

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, on nine separate occasions, between October 2014 and March 2015, Joshua Adam Tatro, 24, of Merritt Island, produced images and videos depicting him sexually abusing a three-year-old child.

He also used a messaging app on his phone to send and receive images depicting child pornography and uploaded images of child pornography onto an online account that he maintained. Law enforcement began investigating Tatro after they learned of his online activity from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“This predator will spend the rest of his life behind bars where he can no longer harm children,” said Susan L. McCormick, special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “The dedicated work of HSI special agents and our Brevard County Sheriff’s Office partners have made our communities a safer place.” On March 17, 2015, agents from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Tatro’s residence. During the execution of the warrant cell phones were recovered from Tatro’s pocket and his bedroom. A forensic examination of those phones led to the recovery of the explicit images and videos that Tatro had produced. During an interview with agents, Tatro admitted to producing the images and videos, and to sending them to others using the messenger app.

In total, Tatro possessed 76 videos and 692 photographs of child pornography on his cell phones. A search of his online drive account revealed more than 1,000 stored images of child pornography. Several of the images in Tatro’s possession depicted children under the age of 12 being sexually abused and exploited. Tatro was found guilty at trial July 6.